Actors - Count Olaf

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	Actors - Count Olaf

Count Olaf is the main villain from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events series. He is filthy, cruel, unscrupulous, and slovenly. He has a wheezy voice, and in The Grim Grotto, he develops an obnoxious villain laugh, which he abandons in The Penultimate Peril for a more succinct laugh, which Lemony Snicket defines as "only the word 'Ha!'".

The Books

In the beginning of the series, the Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with Count Olaf, their closest living relative, after a mysterious fire destroys their homes and kills their parents. While never explicitly stated, it has been implied that Olaf himself was responsible for the fire. Olaf schemes to get the orphans' inheritance.

When the children first arrive at Count Olaf's home they are repulsed. During the time they live there, Olaf treats them horribly, striking Klaus on the face, hanging Sunny from a tower in a cage, and attempting to marry Violet to inherit the Baudelaire fortune.

After the outrageous plan to marry Violet Baudelaire to gain the inheritance goes awry, the children are sent to a different relative for each of the first few books. Count Olaf follows them each time, often killing the relative, in attempts to gain control of the inheritance.

In each of books II-VIII, Olaf wears a new disguise that fools everyone but the Baudelaires:

Stephano (stā-fä’-nō/steɪ-fɑ-nəu), an assistant Herpetologist with a long beard and no eyebrows
Captain Julio Sham, a sailor with an eye-patch and a wooden leg
Shirley T. Sinoit-Pécer, an optometrist's receptionist
Coach Genghis, a gym teacher with a turban
Gunther (go͞onter/guːnɾŗ http://cougar.eb.com/sound/g/gunthe01.wav click here to hear), a pinstripe suit-wearing auctioneer.
Detective Dupin, a famous investigator obsessed with what's cool, including ridiculous sunglasses
Olaf's last disguise is Mattathias (mă’-tə-thī’-əs/mæ-tə-θaɪ-əs), Heimlech Hospital's new HR director. His presence is only known from a scratchy voice over the intercom

After certain events in The Vile Village, it is no longer so necessary for Olaf to disguise himself.

He was, and remains, a member of V.F.D., whence all his disguises come.

In the earlier books, Olaf seems to want only the fortune of the children, but later on, it is revealed that he also seeks the Quagmire sapphires, the Snicket File, and the sugar bowl. The Baudelaires presumably have evidence that could incriminate him, but their guardians don't believe them. Thus, Count Olaf gets away every time.

Olaf's past

Count Olaf's youth is mentioned a few times over the course of the series, the most obvious being the reference in The Unauthorized Autobiography. In that book, there is a letter written by Sally Sebald that contains a picture of a young boy who was to play Young Rölf in Zombies in the Snow. She says that she thinks his name might be Omar (which is a name that many confuse with Count Olaf). This implies that Count Olaf was in Zombies in the Snow, which would make it a very old movie, for Count Olaf himself, disguised as Stephano, watched that movie with the Baudelaires and Montgomery Montgomery.

In The Bad Beginning, Count Olaf says that when he was a child he loved raspberries (and he is probably telling the truth). Soon after Violet says she cannot picture Olaf as a child — all his features seem to be those of an adult.

Another mysterious reference to Count Olaf's childhood is mentioned in The Penultimate Peril. In Chapter One, Kit mentions that she was able to smuggle a box of poison darts to the Baudelaire parents before Esmé Squalor caught her. Through a few subtle hints, we can gather that Lemony Snicket was present as well. Later in the book, when Olaf is confronting the Baudelaires and Dewey Denouement, he dares the Baudelaires to ask Dewey what happened that night at the theater, implying that the Baudelaire parents, Dewey, and the Snickets were there for some sort of sinister purpose. Finally, in Chapter 12, Olaf reveals that poison darts were the reason he became an orphan himself.

The film

Count Olaf was portrayed by actor Jim Carrey in the film adaption of the books.

Like much of the dark material from its source material, Count Olaf's character was toned down for the movie adaptation. Rather than being the sinister and amoral sociopath with a penchant for black humour as in the books, Jim Carrey played Olaf as a bumbling, arrogant fool.

A big change in the movie was the strong suggestion of Olaf's responsibility for the Baudelaire fire. Whereas it was mildly implied in the books (Olaf is a noted arsonist and has burned down several places), the implications are far stronger in the movie. At the climax of the film, we see Count Olaf has a giant spyglass pointed at Baudelaire mansion, presumably through which it was set alight.

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